Thursday, June 7, 2012

What to do, What to do...

Look at that -- Here we are over three weeks into what was proposed to be a two week project. The dog door is STILL not in. Apparently the glass company received the actual dog door last week, but they were waiting on the special-order glass that goes with it. Word has it that the tempered glass arrived today, but they don't have any appointments available until next Wednesday. So that's nice, over FOUR weeks since we ordered. Way to go, A-1 Glass. It's great that we were able to find a local company to do the job, but I think they need to work on their project projection dates.

If you think Secret looks wet in the above picture, you are correct. I finally got the hose out today! It wasn't as leaky as I thought it was. While I do still need to replace it eventually, it works in a pinch for fun playtime with the sprayer. Nothing has changed, Secret instantly went berserk for it just as she always has.

I'm home today & tomorrow trying to use up some vacation time. Still looking for a new job; still have zero leads. Days like today don't really make me look forward to being laid off. After working seven days a week for almost two years now, I don't exactly know what to do with myself. First of all, I didn't even get out of bed until 10:00 a.m. (after getting up at 6:30 to let out and feed the dogs, that is). We did finally venture outside after watching The Price is Right and after de-pooing the yard I set the the course from the June 2012 Clean Run Exercise of the Month that was shared on the list earlier this week.

We started running the drills around noon. I learned the first two drills, we ran them, I learned the second two drills (which, wow, took forever) and then ran them. It was like 84 degrees and sunny, so pretty warm. Practice sessions like today make me feel that choosing to NOT trial outdoors when it might be 90 degrees is the right idea...

That said, everyone did well! Even Luke made it through the first two exercises (not made into a video), but the second two were just way beyond anything he enjoys.

I did edit a few errors out of the video for time reasons, but overall there weren't too many. Secret and Kaiser both grabbed an extra jump a few times when I fully expected my motion to support the correct path, but since they both did it in the same spots I gather I was incorrect in that assumption!

I used Secret's new "naughty toy" (the Kong SafeStix) for her first session. She likes it, but it's a little on the large side to carry for running drills. I switched to her bumper for the second set and she was a happy girl. Why an old ripped up bumper has so much value for her I'll never know. I suppose I should try taking that toy to the river one of these days, as she may not be able to rip those up quite so fast as she does the Wubba toys.

Secret's video:

Kaiser really surprised me, as I expected him to not want to work at all in the heat. He was a game little man today and did great. He didn't have many errors at all, so we were able to get through everything quickly, which always helps in the heat!

The only thing is that it made me sad that I didn't enter him in the USDAA trial next weekend. :o( Oh well, my reasons for doing so haven't changed (avoiding the craziness of having two dogs entered in the *very small* P1 class), but it's still going to be hard to leave him behind.

Kaiser's video:

Hope you enjoy the Grease theme. :o)

We're home again tomorrow and it's supposed to be pretty warm. I'm thinking maybe we should take a trip to the river to go swimming! On Saturday I don't work at the shelter until 1:00 (?????), so I'm going to have to try to find things to keep us occupied. Maybe I should clean my house? Nah....

2 comments:

I never saw that posted, so thanks for sharing it, Greg! I've been following Nari's (and Starbuck's!) progress for some time and was so thrilled for them when Nari got her ADCH. She's an awesome little dog out there making a great name for Klee Kai. :o)

About Me

I have five dogs whom all play along in this sport with me. Luke (Lab/Shepherd) was adopted from my local Humane Society in March of 2004 as a puppy and was my first agility dog (started in 2007). Kaiser (Alaskan Klee Kai) came along in April of 2008 -- he was acquired from a breeder in the great state of Colorado! Secret joined us in December of 2009 from the Border Collie Rescue of MN. Kizzy has quite the background story that can all be read on this blog, but she arrived in July of 2013. Jedi joined the family in April of 2016.